How to Use the Experiential Learning Model
Choose an activity that helps teach your lesson., Ask students to reflect on the activity., Apply the activity directly to your lesson., Reinforce what was learned in the activity.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Choose an activity that helps teach your lesson.
This is the first step to integrating experiential learning into the classroom.
Not just any game or group activity will do.
You need to find one that meets your educational goals.
If you can’t find an experiential learning activity for your topic, you can also consider modifying an existing activity or creating your own.For instance, if you’re teaching the democratic process, hold a mock election.
This can use any combination real and fictional candidates and bill proposals for your students to vote on.
If you’re teaching economics, put students in groups, give them a budget, and tell them to spend their funding on a business idea.
Then, have them determine how they’ll turn this startup into a thriving business. -
Step 2: Ask students to reflect on the activity.
Challenge your students to take time to consider the lesson they’re meant to learn.
This can be done individually by asking students to write in journals or respond to you verbally, or they can reflect in a group discussion.
Don’t get frustrated if students don’t seem to understand right away.
Ask more direct questions to help them get to the point.In the example about democratic process, you can ask questions like, “How do you think this outcome will affect citizens or businesses?” For the economics project above, you can ask something like, “How does the concept of supply and demand impact the efficacy of your business plan?” For struggling students, ask something specific like, “Do you think the election of this candidate will lead to changes in legislature regarding education?” , Have your students take a quiz, write a paper, or otherwise directly address the topic you’re teaching.
The goal of experiential learning is to improve the students’ comprehension of the topic, so make sure they have actually learned the topic by applying your lesson more directly to an assignment or test.For instance, if a local school board voted to extend the school day by twenty minutes for high school students, your students could write an analysis regarding the effect of extra class time or time between courses and how it affected their learning ability. , Now that your students have completed the in-class experiential learning assignment, reflected on how it relates to the course, and directly applied their learning to the topic, it’s time to reinforce the subject matter.
This is the “Now what?” part of experiential learning.In the economics example, you could ask your students to consider the economic ramifications on existing businesses.
If they were going to use their money to open a book store, you could ask them to consider whether or not their new business would impact profits for Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, and Amazon. -
Step 3: Apply the activity directly to your lesson.
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Step 4: Reinforce what was learned in the activity.
Detailed Guide
This is the first step to integrating experiential learning into the classroom.
Not just any game or group activity will do.
You need to find one that meets your educational goals.
If you can’t find an experiential learning activity for your topic, you can also consider modifying an existing activity or creating your own.For instance, if you’re teaching the democratic process, hold a mock election.
This can use any combination real and fictional candidates and bill proposals for your students to vote on.
If you’re teaching economics, put students in groups, give them a budget, and tell them to spend their funding on a business idea.
Then, have them determine how they’ll turn this startup into a thriving business.
Challenge your students to take time to consider the lesson they’re meant to learn.
This can be done individually by asking students to write in journals or respond to you verbally, or they can reflect in a group discussion.
Don’t get frustrated if students don’t seem to understand right away.
Ask more direct questions to help them get to the point.In the example about democratic process, you can ask questions like, “How do you think this outcome will affect citizens or businesses?” For the economics project above, you can ask something like, “How does the concept of supply and demand impact the efficacy of your business plan?” For struggling students, ask something specific like, “Do you think the election of this candidate will lead to changes in legislature regarding education?” , Have your students take a quiz, write a paper, or otherwise directly address the topic you’re teaching.
The goal of experiential learning is to improve the students’ comprehension of the topic, so make sure they have actually learned the topic by applying your lesson more directly to an assignment or test.For instance, if a local school board voted to extend the school day by twenty minutes for high school students, your students could write an analysis regarding the effect of extra class time or time between courses and how it affected their learning ability. , Now that your students have completed the in-class experiential learning assignment, reflected on how it relates to the course, and directly applied their learning to the topic, it’s time to reinforce the subject matter.
This is the “Now what?” part of experiential learning.In the economics example, you could ask your students to consider the economic ramifications on existing businesses.
If they were going to use their money to open a book store, you could ask them to consider whether or not their new business would impact profits for Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, and Amazon.
About the Author
Joshua Morales
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow lifestyle tutorials.
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